| David di Donatello Awards | |
| Current Awards: | 69th David di Donatello |
| Awarded For: | The best of Italian and foreign motion picture productions |
| Country: | Italy |
| Presenter: | Academy of Italian Cinema |
| Year: | 5 June 1956 |
The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's David, a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance,[1] are film awards given out each year by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (the Academy of Italian Cinema).[2] There are 26 award categories, as of 2023. The industry-voted awards are considered the Italian equivalent of the American Academy Awards.[3]
The David di Donatello film awards were founded in 1955 by the founding president of AGIS (Italian General Association for Show Business), businessman Italo Gemini, in order to honour the best of each year's Italian and foreign films. It was first awarded in Rome on 5 July 1956.[4]
The David di Donatello film awards follow the same criteria as the American Academy Awards.
Similar prizes had already existed in Italy for about a decade, such as the Nastro d'Argento, but these were voted on by film critics and journalists. The Donatellos are awarded by people within the film industry, including actors, producers, directors, screenwriters, and technicians.[5]
After Rome, from 1957 to 1980, the ceremony was held at the Greek Theatre in Taormina during Taormina Film Fest, then twice in Florence, finally returning to Rome, always with the support of the President of the Italian Republic and now with the collaboration of the Rome City Council cultural policies department.[6]
The founding organization, now called the Accademia del Cinema Italiano, works in concert with and thanks to the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism.
The prizes are awarded primarily to Italian films, with a category dedicated to foreign-language films.
The following is a list of presidents of the Academy of Italian Cinema:
| President | Start | End | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italo Gemini | 1955 | 1970 | |
| Eitel Monaco | 1971 | 1977 | |
| Paolo Grassi | 1978 | 1980 | |
| Gian Luigi Rondi | 1981 | 2016† | President for life since 2009 |
| Giuliano Montaldo | 2016 | 2017 | Interim |
| Piera Detassis[7] | 2018 | current | First female to hold the office |
† Died in office.
The David di Donatello trophy is in the form of a gold David statuette, a replica of Donatello's famous sculpture, on a square malachite base with a gold plaque recording the award category, year, and winner.
The 1956 David by Bulgari, awarded to Gina Lollobrigida for Beautiful but Dangerous, was auctioned at Sotheby's in 2013.[8]
As of 2020, with seven awards each, Margherita Buy, Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, and Sophia Loren are the actors who have won the most Davids.[9] [10]
| Actor | Leading | Supporting | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=50px | W ! | width=50px | N | width=50px | W ! | width=50px | N | width=50px | W ! | width=50px | N |
| align=left bgcolor=pink | Margherita Buy | 5 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 16 | ||||
| Alberto Sordi | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | ||||||
| Vittorio Gassman | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||||||
| align=left bgcolor=pink | Sophia Loren | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |||||
| Giancarlo Giannini | 4 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 | |||||
| Marcello Mastroianni | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||||
| Monica Vitti | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||||
| Marina Confalone | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||||
| Valerio Mastandrea | 2 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 13 | |||||
| Toni Servillo | 4 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 11 | ||||||
| Elio Germano | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 7 | ||||||
| align=left bgcolor=pink | Valeria Bruni Tedeschi | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||
| align=left bgcolor=pink | Mariangela Melato | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |||||
| Nino Manfredi | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |